ECONOMIC TREND SINCE 1937

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 153, 24 March 1939, Page 10

ECONOMIC TREND SINCE 1937

Overdraft Figures Up REASON AGAINST HIGHER WAGES Opposing the suggestion that skilled workers should receive a higher rate of pay than that contained in the Court of Arbitration’s pronouncement of September 7, 1937, Mr. W. J. Mountjoy laid before the Court yesterday figures to support a submission that the Dominion’s economic position was not as sound or stable as at the previous date. Mr. Mountjoy was opening the case for the employers of carpenters and joiners in response to the workers’ application for a new Dominion award. Mr. Mountjoy said- that statistical summary of the Reserve showed that advances by trading banks to farmers had increased considerably since March, 1937, and he quoted a table which showed the following increases in advances to farmers between March, 1937, and December, 1938: —Mainly dairy farmers, £4,703,000 to £5,427,000; mainly wool, £5,418,000 to £7,135,000; mainly meat, £1,948,000 to £2,472,000; mainly agricultural, £316,000 to £441,000; mixed, £4,141,000 to £4,552,000; total, £16,526,000 to £20,372,000. Under the heading of industries allied to primary production, advances to dairy companies also had increased considerably, from £1,251,000 in March, 1937, to £2,120,000 in December, 1938. Also the heading “stock and station agents” showed a greater increase in comparison with any of the other figures. For instance, in June, 1938, stock and station agents’ advances amounted to £1,232,000, in September to £2,367,000, and in December to £3,018,000. That was, no doubt, because the calls made on stock and station agents by farmers were greater than previously. The figures surely indicated that the financial position of the Dominion was not as stable as 12 months before, and whatever policy be followed it was inevitable that consumption must fall and the standard of living reached in 1938 suffer a reduction, said Mr. Mountjoy. The time had undoubtedly arrived for the stabilizing of the rates of wages and costs of production, and he suggested that the Court give full consideration to the need to emphasize again that the rates of wages set out in the Court’s pronouncement of September, 1937, were the rates that the Court would adopt for the classes of workers in that pronouncement.